Refrigerating apparatus for cooling room air



H. A. WHEELER March 11, 1958 REFRIGERATING APPARATUS FOR COOLING ROOMAIR Filed Aug. 27. 1954 5 Sheets-Sheet l I I INVENTOR.

282m @Wee/az REFRIGERATING APPARATUS FOR COOLING ROOM AIR Filed Aug. 27,1954 March 11, 1958 H. A. WHEELER 3 Sheeis Sheet 2 IN VEN TOR.

lllll March 11, 1958 I H.IAI. WHEELER REFRIGERATING APPARATUS FORCOOLING ROOM AIR Filed Aug. 2'7, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. zza/zQWea ez BYE Va- 2 I Harold A. Wheeler, Dayton, Ohio, assignor to GeneralMotors Corporation, Detroit, Mich, a corporation of Delaware ApplicationAugust 27, 1954, Serial No. 452,524 4 Claims. (Cl. 62140)' Thisinvention relates to refrigerating apparatus and more particularly to aself-contained room cooler of the type adapted to be mounted in a windowopening.

it is an object of this invention to provide a compact and inexpensiveair conditioner which is easy to install and service.

Another object of this invention is to provide a self contained airconditioning unit which may be used for introducing large quantities offresh air at times when no cooling is required.

A further object of this invention is to provide a unit which may bemounted. in a casement type of window without making. any majoralterations in the easement window.

Another object of this invention is to provide a selfcontained roomcooler which may be used for cooling 100 percent recirculated air, 1.00percent outside air or any desired ratio of fresh air to outside air.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a window mountedair conditioner having the air inlets and outlets so arranged that thefront end of the unit may, if desired, be mounted substantially flushwith the window casing with the major part of the unit projectingoutwardly from the window opening.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, where,- in a preferred form of the present invention isclearly shown.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a side elevational view with parts broken away showing apreferred embodiment of the invention;

Figure 2 is a plan view with parts broken away;

Figure 3 is an end elevational view showing the air inlet and air outletpassages;

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially on line 4-4 ofFigure 2;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the compressor mountingarrangement;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary sectional view showing the construction andarrangement of the condenser cover;

and,

Figure 7 is a fragmentary sectional view on an enlarged scale showing indetail the. construction of the internal air seal.

For purposes of illustration, the invention has been I shown applied toa self-contained air conditioning unit of the type which. isparticularly suitable for mounting in a casement window whereas certainaspects of the invention. are equally applicable to air conditioningunits mounted in other types of windows and wall openings.

The air conditioning unit used in illustrating the invention comprisesan outer casing 10 having a top wall 12, side walls 14, and an end. wall16-. The casing 10 is open at its front end and bottom and is providedwith guide rails 18 adjacent the bottom edges for slidably receiving arefrigeration unit which is mounted on a pan like base 22. In installingan air conditioner of this type the cabinet 10 is first secured on thewindow sill and then the refrigeration unit is inserted through thefront end of the cabinet. The front end of the casing, in the deviceillustrated is larger in cross section than. the rear end which is madesmall enough to project through a rates atent ii ice casement windowopening. In those air conditioners designed for use in conventionalwindows the rear end could be made just as large as the front end.

The inner wall of the casing 10 has spot-wcldedthereto a bracket 2 whichsupports an extruded rubber or rubber-like sealing strip 26 which sealsed the evaporator compartment from the condenser compartment. Thissealing strip is provided with a projecting web-like member 28 which isarranged to engage the edges of the vertical Wall 29 of: therefrigeration unit in a manner. to seal the evaporator compartment fromthe condenser compartment. A removable and decorative front panel 69fits onto the front end of the casing after the refrigerating mechanismhas been installed.

The refrigerating unit includes the usual refrigerant evaporator 39, asealed motor-compressor unit 32-, and a condenser 36. The evaporator 30is supported adjacent the front end of the base 22 in a raised positionrelative to the base so as to provide a passage for the flow of freshair between the bottom of the evaporator 30 and the base 22. The sealedmotor-compressor unit, 32 is adapted to be supported on the base 22 bymeans of spring mounts 34 which serve to resiliently support thecompressor in spaced relationship to the base 22. as.

shown. The mounts 34 include a coil spring 35 held between resilientpads 37 and 39 as shown.

The refrigerant condenser 36 is arranged adjacent the rear end of thebase 22 and extends substantially the full width and height of thecasing. The usual refrigerant flow connections generally designated bythe reference numeral 3?: serve to connect the compressor, condenser andevaporator into series refrigerant flow relationship. These connectionsinclude the usual capillary tube restrictor element 40 which serves torestrict the flow of refrigerant from the condenser to the evaporator inaccordance with well known practice.

The side walls 14 of the outer casing are provided with suitable airinlet openings 42 through which condenser cooling air enters thecondenser compartment of the unit. A condenser fan 44 driven by a motor46 serves to pull air in through the side air inlets 42 and to dischargethe air outwardly through the condenser and the rear air outlet 48. Thebottom wall of the pan-like base 22 drains the condensate water towardthe rear of the unit in accordance with standard practice. As best shownin Figure 1 of the drawing the blades of the fan 44 include a condensateflinger ring 50 which dips into the condensate which tends to collect inthe pan-like base element 22.

This fiinger ring serves to atomize the condensate water and in so doingdings an appreciable amount of water onto the bottom side of thecondenser cover 52. Some of this water tends to collect in largedroplets which eventually fall down. If this condenser cover were madefiat some of the drops would tend to fall onto the fan blades and causeobjectionable noises. in order to prevent this from happening the coveris provided with a depression 54. This depression provides an inclinedsurface directly above the fan which is so arranged that the droplets ofwater follow the inclined surface to the very lowest point beforedropping down. This low point is located on a line beyond the edge ofthe fan and in close proximity to the face of the coils so that thedroplets of water do not fall onto the fan blades but fall so close tothe fins on the condenser that the air circulated by the fan causes thedrops. to impinge against the condenser fins and the associated tubes.of the condenser whereby the water is evaporated by the heat beingdissipated by the condenser.

An evaporator fan 6-!) driven by an electric motor 62 serves tocirculate air to be conditioned in thermal exchange relationship withthe evaporator 39. Room air to be conditioned is introduced into thecasing adjacent the lower front edge of the casing so as to flowrearwardly over the evaporator on its way to the evaporator fan inlet64. The outlet of the fan is arranged to direct the refrigerated airforwardly through "a conduit 66 located directly above the evaporatorand extending from the fan shroud to the front of the assembly. An airdirecting grill assembly 68 is secured directly to the front end of theconduit 66. By virtue of the above described construction andarrangement it is obvious that the air grill, the conduit 66, and theevaporator fan form a part of the mechanism carried by the base 22.

As best shown in Figure l of the drawing, the front panel 69 for theunit is made of molded plastic material and includes an opening 70 inalignment with the air outlet grill assembly 68. For a more completedescription of the air outlet grill assembly, reference is hereby madeto copending application Serial No. 454,480 filed Sept. 7, 1954, whichdescribes the air grill in detail. in the air conditioner shown herein,only one conditioned air outlet grill is shown whereas the larger airconditioners would have two or more grills. The plastic front panel 69also includes an opening 72 which is provided with a pivoted door 74.The door 74 opens outwardly so as to provide access to the control knobs76 and 78. A spring 73 yieldably holds the door 74 in the closedposition. The knob 76 controls the energization of the fan motors andthe compressor unit whereas the knob 78 controls the temperature settingof the thermostatic switch unit 79 which controls the cycling of therefrigerating system. Inasmuch as controls of this type are notoriouslyold they will not be described in greater detail.

For the purpose of controlling the ratio of fresh air to recirculatedair flowing over the evaporator 30 a control damper 8b is pivotallysupported at the front edge of the base-like pan element 22 as indicatedat 82 in Figure 1. This control damper cooperates with the plastic frontpanel 6 to completely shut off the room air inlet opening when thedamper is in a raised position up against the inner surface of the frontpanel 69. By pivotally swinging the damper 80 downwardly onto the freshair inlet opening 84 it is possible to completely shut olf theintroduction of fresh air to the evaporator compartment. A bug screen 86is provided at the inlet opening 84 so as to prevent flies and otherinsects from entering the room.

As best shown in Figure 4 of the drawing, fresh air entering thecondenser compartment is free to flow toward the front of the casing byflowing beneath the shroud 90 of the evaporator fan 60 and also beneaththe evaporator 30. This fresh air passage has been designated by thereference numeral 92 and extends from the condenser compartment to apoint ahead of the evaporator 30 as best shown in Figures 1 and 4. Theamount of fresh air which is allowed to flow through the passage 92 iscontrolled by the damper 80 which is located at the outlet of thispassage.

While the form of embodiment of the invention as hereindisclosedconstitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other formsmight be adopted, as may come within the scope of the claims whichfollow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. In a window mounted air conditioner the combination of a cabinetcomprising a top wall, side walls, an end wall and an open bottomadapted to extend outwardly through a window opening and having guiderail means therein, means for fastening the cabinet within a windowopening, and an air cooling unit slidably mounted in said cabinet andhaving means cooperating with said top and side walls to divide theinterior of said cabinet into an evaporator compartment and a condensercompartment, said cooling unit including a base, a condenser mountedadjacent the outer end of said base, an evaporator mounted adjacent theinner end of said base, fan means for circulating air in thermalexchange relationship with said condenser, fan means for circulat- 4 ingair to be conditioned in thermal exchange relationship with saidevaporator, said evaporator being supported in elevated positionrelative to said base so as to form a fresh air inlet passage betweensaid evaporator and said base, a front panel means secured to saidcabinet and having a cut away lower edge portion forming an air inletadjacent its lower edge and having an air outlet adjacent its upperedge, a conduit connecting the outlet of said evaporator fan means andsaid air outlet, said conduit overlying said evaporator, and an airdirecting grill secured directly to the front end of said conduit andprojecting into said air outlet.

2. In a self-contained air conditioning unit, a cabinet, refrigeratingapparatus disposed within said cabinet, said refrigerating apparatuscomprising an evaporator, 11 condenser, a sealed motor-compressor unit,and refrigerant flow connections between said evaporator, compressor andcondenser, evaporator fan means for circulating air to be conditioned inthermal exchange relationship with said evaporator, condenser fan meansfor circulating condenser cooling air in thermal exchange relationshipwith said condenser, means for draining condensate from said evaporatorto a point adjacent said condenser fan, a plate extending from a pointabove said condenser fan to a point above said condenser and forming acondenser fan shroud, the top wall of said fan shroud including aninclined surface for draining condensate water to a point oflset fromsaid fan toward the outlet side of said fan whereby droplets fallingfrom the lowest point on said inclined surface do not fall onto saidfan.

3. A room cooler adapted to be mounted on a window sill of a windowframe and including a supporting cabinet secured to the window sill, arefrigeration unit slidably supported in said cabinet, saidrefrigeration unit including an evaporator adjacent the front endthereof and a condenser adjacent the rear end thereof, means forsupportin said evaporator in spaced relationship to the top and bottomof said cabinet whereby air flow passages are provided above and beneathsaid evaporator, means for introducing outside air to be conditionedthrough one of said passages forwardly beneath .d evaporator, and meansincluding a fan for circulating the air to be conditioned rearwardlythrough said evaporator and for discharging the air thus cooledforwardly over the top of said evaporator through the other of saidpassages, manually operated control means for said refrigeration unitlocated in front of said evaporator and directly beneath said otherpassage, and a removable front panel for said cabinet having openingsproviding access to said passages and said control means.

4. In a self-contained air conditioner, a separable assembly including acabinet and a refrigeration unit to be positioned within said cabinet,said refrigeration unit comprising a refrigerating system including acondenser and an evaporator, said cabinet having guide means disposedthereon, said refrigeration unit having a pan-like base slidablysupported on said guide means, gasket means carried by said cabinet andarranged to engage a portion of said refrigeration unit to separate saidcabinet into an evaporator compartment and a condenser compartment, saidcabinet having a sheet metal strip secured thereto and provided with apair of wings lying substantially parallel to the adjacent inside wallsof said cabinet, said gasket means having slotted mounting flangesgripping said wings for holding the gasket means in position.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,262,261 Smith Nov. 11, 1941 2,290,973 Jewell July 28, 1942 2,335,627Wolfert Nov. 30, 1943 2,357,362 Smith Sept. 5, 1944 2,408,973 Cody Oct.8, 1946 2,472,792 Cohler June 14, 1949 2,730,873 Hardin Jan. 17, 1956

